


You Heathens

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: Community: fanfic100, F/M, Family, One-Shot, Quasi-Canon, word of god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-06
Updated: 2010-03-06
Packaged: 2017-10-07 18:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ma and Da are home. What did they bring? Coram addresses the (supposed) materialism of his family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Heathens

**Author's Note:**

> As per the word of the author, Coram and Rispah have ten children - four daughters and six sons, and their names are her creation, not mine. I took some liberties with Coram and Rispah's small horde of children: The eldest two boys (Jonthair and Thomsen) are off being pages/squires, and Daran and Liam as twins is not canon - I made it up.

Coram looked across at his wife and smiled, as the shouts of welcome echoed off Trebond's generations-old outer walls.

"They missed us," Rispah said, straight-faced.

"The heathens. Of course they did." If he squinted, Coram could see the children as they ran through the gate, in a disorderly pack, yelling for all they were worth. _"Ma! Da!"_

As soon as Rispah climbed down from the saddle, the younger ones threw themselves at her, yelling, and nearly knocked her backwards. She laughed heartily, and knelt down in the snow to hug her children, kissing a cheek or forehead.

Mylec, already a strapping lad, placed the baby, Buran, in his mother’s arms.

“’lo, Da.” Alinna crossed to him and slipped her arm through his. She was a growing and sturdy lass of fourteen, not a delicate and willowy thing.

“Hello, lassie,” Coram said, kissing her on the tip of her cold nose. Her cheeks were red from the cold and her run, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Ye did what I asked, then?”

“Yes, Da.” His eldest daughter’s face lit up with pride; she’d been left to fill Rispah’s shoes while her parents were away.

“Good lass,” he said, patting her shoulder firmly. “See if’n you can’t help your Ma – she’s under siege by ‘em over there.”

Rispah was occupied with trying to wipe the dirty face of one of the twins – Coram couldn’t tell which, from the back – and Alinna swept in, taking the baby from the crook of Rispah’s arm and wrangling Rose and Elenna from clinging to their mother’s skirts. She settled the baby against her own shoulder, and it took but a moment for Rose and Elenna to throw themselves at him, with Thayine not far behind.

“Da.” Mylec stood in front of him. Coram settled for grasping his son’s forearm and slapping him on the back as a greeting. “Ye went and grew while I was away – again, laddie. You’d think yer Ma had…”

“_Coram!_” Rispah got to her feet, the twins each clinging to a hand. “Gods, man, mind your tongue.”

Mylec shrugged. “How’re Jon and Thomsen?”

“Well enough, an’ busy to boot. We got less’n a day with Jon, before he was off again. Ye picked him a fine horse – you’ve got the eye for horses, lad.”

The twins, sensing their mother’s anger, had abandoned her and come to stand in front of Coram, interrupting whatever response Mylec would have made.

“Yes, heathens?” he asked, seeing the matching expressions on their faces. They wanted something, or had been up to some mischief – it was hard to tell. “What’ve ye two done?”

They laughed, and then Daran started, “say, Da…”

Liam elbowed his twin firmly in the ribs. “Da, what he means is…”

“_Did you bring us anything?_”

Coram laughed, and so did the men posted atop the walls. Rispah shook her head and grumbled something about how they truly were heathens, then succumbed to laughter of her own. The girls, too polite to ask, looked up at him with hope in their eyes. They wondered what things their parents had brought them from Corus; city trips and the things from the marketplace were rare.

“Heathens. _All _of ye. Man can’t even get inside his house an’ get warm afore you’re pestering him for gifts. Is that all you wanted?” The hugs he got in response said otherwise and he boosted Rose and Elenna into his arms and beckoned to the rest. “C’mon. Ye _might _get your presents yet.”

 


End file.
